The present invention relates to systems and methods for visualizing subsurface regions of samples, and more specifically, to a time domain optical coherence reflectometer (OCR) and time domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) device that provide internal depth profiles and depth resolved images of samples.
Optical coherence reflectometry/tomography involves splitting an optical radiation to at least two portions, and directing one portion of the optical radiation toward a subject of investigation. The subject of investigation will be further referred to as a “sample”, whereas the portion of optical radiation directed toward the sample will be further referred to as a “sample portion” of optical radiation. The sample portion of optical radiation is directed toward the sample by means of a delivering device, such as an optical probe. Another portion of the optical radiation, which will be further referred to as “reference portion”, is used to provide heterodyne detection of the low intensity radiation, reflected or backscattered from the sample.
Typically, any optical coherence reflectometer or OCT device is specified by a longitudinal (in-depth) range of interest, whereas the longitudinal range of interest and the sample overlap, at least partially. The longitudinal range of interest includes a proximal boundary and a distal boundary, and in time domain systems is equivalent to the longitudinal scanning range. In time domain optical coherence reflectometry, at every moment only a small part of the sample portion of the optical radiation, reflected or backscattered from some point located inside the boundaries of the longitudinal range of interest is utilized. In-depth profiling of the sample is provided by introducing a variable optical path length difference for the sample and reference portions of the optical radiation.
A well known version of time domain optical coherence reflectometry and tomography is the “common path” version, also known as autocorrelator or Fizeau interferometer based OCR/OCT. In this version, the reference and sample portions of the optical radiation do not travel along separate optical paths. Instead, a reference reflection is created in the sample optical path by introducing an optical inhomogenuity in the distal part of the delivering device, the inhomogenuity serving as a reference reflector. Resulting from that, the reference and sample portions of the optical radiation experience an axial shift only. The distance between the reference reflector and the front boundary of the longitudinal range of interest will be considered here as “reference offset”. The entire combination of the sample portion of the optical radiation and axially shifted reference portion is combined with the replica of the same combination, shifted axially, so the reference portion of one replica has a time of flight (or optical path length) matching that of the sample portion of another replica. These portions interfere in a very similar way to the traditional “separate path” time domain optical coherence reflectometry/tomography embodiments. The interference signal is formed by a secondary interferometer, the two arms of which have an optical length difference (“interferometer offset”) substantially equal to the reference offset. By scanning an optical delay between the two replicas, a time profile of the interference signal is obtained, which represents the in-depth profile of the coherent part of the reflected sample portion of optical radiation. The later is substantially equivalent to the profile obtained in traditional separate path embodiments.
Common path time domain reflectometry/tomography has a lot of intrinsic advantages over separate path time domain reflectometry/tomography. These advantages are based on the fact that reference and sample portions of the optical radiation propagate in the same optical path and therefore experience substantially identical delay, polarization distortions, optical dispersion, and the like. Therefore, the interference fringes are insensitive to the majority of the probe properties, including the optical fiber probe length, dispersion properties and polarization mismatch. In separate path time domain reflectometry/tomography, the length and dispersion of the sampling arm should be closely matched with the reference arm and the polarization mismatch should be prevented (using PM fiber or other means) or compensated (using polarization diversity receiver or other means).
A limitation to previously known common path time domain reflectometry/tomography devices is that the secondary interferometer necessarily includes Faraday mirrors to compensate for static and dynamic polarization changes in the interferometer arms. However, Faraday mirrors are known to be expensive, thus increasing the overall expenses for device manufacturing. In addition, the performance of Faraday mirrors is wavelength and temperature dependant, leading to a requirement of changing the Faraday mirrors when switching to a different wavelength and/or including additional tuning and temperature stabilizing means.
Another limitation to previously known common path time domain reflectometry/tomography devices is that the registered interference signal is responsive only to the non-depolarized portion, or in other words, responsive only to the parallel-polarized component of the optical radiation reflected or backscattered from the sample. The portion of the optical radiation depolarized by the sample and reflected or backscattered from it (the cross-polarized component), does not produce interference fringes and is not registered. However, in many cases OCR/OCT images created from the depolarized portion of the optical radiation demonstrate enhanced contrast and could be successfully used for biomedical diagnostics.
As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the concept of “parallel-polarized” and “cross-polarized” is applied here for elliptical polarization. “Parallel-polarized” is used for components with elliptical polarizations having the same eccentricity, same orientation of the long axis (ellipse tilt angle), and same rotation direction for the electric field. “Cross-polarized” is used for components with elliptical polarizations having the same eccentricity, orthogonal orientation of the long axis, and opposite rotation direction for the electric field. As in the case of linear or circular polarization these parallel-polarized components produce strongest interference, while cross-polarized components do not interfere at all.
Thus, there exists a need for a common path time domain OCR/OCT device that overcomes the above mentioned limitations by eliminating the necessity of using Faraday mirrors.
There also exists a need for a common path time domain OCR/OCT device that overcomes the above mentioned limitations by providing registration of the portion of the optical radiation depolarized by the sample, i.e. of the cross-polarized component of the optical radiation reflected or backscattered from the sample.